TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Materials/Processes

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMS-500 DDX

OBJECTIVE: Develop cryogenic seals and quick disconnects for both cryogenic fluid and electrical power feedthroughs to be used in a Navy shipboard environment.

DESCRIPTION: The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are developing systems that operate in a cryogenic environment such as propulsion motors, dc degaussing cables, and power electronics. A future combatant could have several discrete or interconnected cryogenic and superconducting systems with a variety of sealing and connection requirements. Cryogenic seals and electrical connections that can be used without impacting the mission are necessary for these types of systems.

The various systems being developed cover a wide temperature range from 4.2K up to 80K and also have different cooling mediums such as liquid and gaseous helium and liquid nitrogen. For survivability and maintenance purposes the ability to quickly connect or disconnect cryogen and electrical power transfer lines without impacting the systems they support would be necessary.

The current state of the art in cryogen seals in a vacuum environment use one time copper seals with "knife edge" flanges. These copper seals are not reusable and are only suitable for cryogen only lines. There is no current commercially available product for the quick connection of both an electrical and cryogen flow in the same device.

A system that would benefit from such a combination of electrical and cryogen connection would be the High Temperature Superconducting (HTS) Degaussing system. The system is being developed to use gaseous helium at 55K to cool a superconducting cable. The degaussing application is a distributed cable system throughout the ship. When damage occurs to one section of cable it would be necessary to replace it. It is envisioned that spare cables could be carried on the ship with quick disconnects on the ends that would encompass both the helium flow and up to 40 superconducting wires.

Novel and innovative ideas or approaches for cryogenic seals and superconducting electrical connections are desired. The approaches should fill a need by an existing program such as the propulsion motors, HTS degaussing or power electronic developments.

PHASE I: Identify applications of the novel connection or seal design within potential Navy electrical power systems. Define basic requirements based on application. Determine the feasibility of developing a cryogenic connection and/or seal for use in Navy systems. Complete preliminary designs of a shipboard cryogenic connection and/or seal.

PHASE II: Develop full scale prototypes to demonstrate and validate the systems capabilities. Based on prototype, develop a conceptual design, with cost estimates, of a shipboard cryogenic connection and/or seal.

PHASE III: Transition the technology to commercial and military cryogenic or superconducting applications.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The resulting cryogenic seal or connection will be directly applicable to commercial and military in the expanding market of cryogenics. As cryogenics move from a laboratory environment to field uses new fittings will be needed to make the systems more user friendly. There is potential for a diverse market from physics research laboratories, electric propulsion motors, and electrical utility cables.

REFERENCES:
1. Fitzpatrick, B. "High Temperature Superconducting Degaussing System Assessment," to be published in the proceedings of ASNE Day 2005, April 2005.
2. Snitchler G., Gamble B., Kalsi S.S., "The performance of a 5 MW high temperature superconductor ship propulsion motor" Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on Volume 15, Issue 2, Part 2, June 2005 Page(s):2206 � 2209
3. RJ Thome, W Creedon, M Reed, E Bowles, K Schaubel - Power Engineering Society Summer Meeting, 2002 IEEE, 2002
4. Curcic, T.; Wolf, S.A., "Superconducting hybrid power electronics for military systems", Applied Superconductivity, IEEE Transactions on Volume 15, Issue 2, Part 2, June 2005 Page(s):2364 - 2369
5. "Shipboard Electric Power Distribution: AC Versus DC Is Not the Issue, Rather, How Much of Each Is the Issue"; LCDR John V. Amy Jr. PhD, Mr. David H. Clayton and Mr. Rolf O. Kotacka; All Electric Ship 98 Conference.2nd ed., vol. 3, J. Peters, Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964, pp. 15-64.
6. Henry Hegner, Bipin Desai: "Integrated Fight Through Power", IEEE Power Engineering Society, Chicago, USA, July 2002.

KEYWORDS: HTS; Cryogenic; Seal; Superconductor; HTS; Connector; Quick Connect; Power Electronics; Electrical Distribution

TPOC: George Stimak
Phone: (703)588-0616
Fax: (703)696-0934
Email: [email protected]
2nd TPOC: Brian Fitzpatrick
Phone: (215)897-8473
Fax: (215)897-8380
Email: [email protected]

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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